Problems in identifying the effects of structure and critical state in a soil with a transitional behaviour

Abstract

This work shows that some soils with an intermediate behaviour between clays and sands do not have a unique compression line, as has also been pointed out by Martins et al. It has been shown here that a unique critical state line could not be determined for the remoulded soil. Although the results shown here are for a reconstituted residual soil, similar behaviour in compressibility has been found in silts and mixtures of sand and kaolin. However, it has been found that the critical state framework can be applied using a family of parallel critical state lines depending on the initial specific volume. One of the questions raised by this work is how the effects of structure can be quantified if the intrinsic properties of the remoulded material are not unique. The compression and critical state lines of the remoulded material are not only non-unique but also of a distinctly different gradient from the natural material.